Key locks, particularly those employed with doors, such as doors utilized in residential and business applications, are well known and are available in many varieties. The type of door lock is often carefully selected based on the environment in which the door is to be used. For instance, the key locks used with doors in business establishments are often more rugged and expensive than those used in doors employed in residential applications.
A good key lock must be hard to unlock without the key. This is, of course, important for preventing unauthorized or unwanted intrusions, such as by burglars. Although the importance of good key locks cannot be overstated, over recent years relatively little attention has been directed toward improving the security of key locks. Because the same types of key locks are continually being installed in doors, both in new construction and in remodeling projects, attentive thieves have discovered the weaknesses of the existing key locks and have, it so appears, found ways to easily unlock these locks without the appropriate key. As a result, unwanted intrusions appear to be on the rise. Given the lack of meaningful innovations in the art of key locks in recent years, there is a need in the art for an improved key lock that is easy to build, efficient, highly secure, and exceptionally difficult to unlock without the appropriate key.